


Make It Up, An Emotion For Salvation

by gulpereel



Category: Kamen Rider Zero-One
Genre: Alternate Universe, Blood and Injury, M/M, No one wants this, No real spoilers however, Reiwa Movie AU, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-26
Updated: 2020-03-26
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:01:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23328940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gulpereel/pseuds/gulpereel
Summary: Reiwa movie AU. What if the world had been taken over by humagears after the Daybreak Incident? The anti-humagear resistance rescue Amatsu Gai but no one is actually happy about it. Basically a prisoner, Gai is forced to interact with the only person allowed access to him, Fuwa Isamu.
Relationships: Amatsu Gai/Fuwa Isamu
Kudos: 7





	Make It Up, An Emotion For Salvation

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so I've actually seen the movie twice due to living in Japan right now, but the fic doesn't contain any real spoilers as Gai never featured in the movie to begin with. I've basically taken the concept of the commune and basic plot of the movie and mixed it up with my own ideas about how Gai could fit into it. Also, yes, I know, slowburn romance Fuwa/Gai? No one wanted this, but I apparently do.

They didn't know what to do with him at first.

It wasn't as if they were planning to rescue him in the first place, but the anti humagear front had happened to stumble in on the exact moment Gai was running for his life and well. It seems that any human is better than rescuing no human - the entire building had nearly been wiped out of life beyond a few people. He could see the play of emotions on their faces as they loaded him into the van - disgust, hesitance - and watched the ZAIA enterprise building burn while driving away. 

Were they upset that he'd been the only one they could save? Or was the heavy atmosphere just due to being entranced in watching ZAIA HQ burn down? Gai was the latter - watching the flames bold and bright in the night, he couldn't look away. The van was silent. 

ZAIA had been working with the humagears up until that point, providing weaponry but not out of Gai's own choice. It had been essentially a hostage situation, being forced to work for them on the basis that Gai had in a way helped start their revolution - considered a special case of a human. In exchange of keeping employees safe, for the sake of having access to his technology department and files still to figure out anything to escape the situation, pride had been swallowed.

It's just, he had expected the humagears to find the humans manning ZAIA to be obsolete eventually, but he had expected more time to prepare for it. The sudden descent of the humagears had been almost too quick to handle and it's frustrating that he spent weeks being a slave to the very things he hates for it all amount to the worst conclusion it could've had. 

To the regular person however, to the people in the van, he was nothing but a betrayer of humankind and he knows that. It's not wrong, on paper.

But he knows no one is going to listen to him explain his reasoning, justify his actions. It's no longer an era of fair trial by evidence and polite debate.

When they arrived at a location Gai had no idea of, Yua Yaiba and Isamu Fuwa were there, waiting. He was kept in the van as the others unloaded, he saw Fuwa talk in hushed tones with another, a look of anger clearly on his face. A little hurt too - maybe all he'd wanted was more survivors, more sheep to this ragtag flock. Gai merely sits in place, one leg crossed over the other and arms folded. By him is a briefcase hastily put together to escape with. He knows the contents will be forfeit now and he wishes he could've escaped on his own merit. 

Fuwa jumps into the van and looks at him. He's unsure, like a dog curious of something on the side of the road and he knows he probably looks like it. His white clothes are ripped, a bit of blood here and there but it's not all his own, the black residue of flames cling to his face and body. 

"You know, no one actually wants you alive," he begins, stated of a matter of fact. It's no surprise to Gai - he knows they will blame him regardless. 

"I know - so what are you going to do about it? Shoot me right here? Put me down on my knees? Public executions can increase morale, apparently," Gai gives a little shrug then, leans back against the back of the van. Perhaps he should have more sense of survival but he can read Fuwa, not like it's a special skill, everyone can, but he knows that's not what's on the agenda. No, Fuwa isn't going to let any human die, as far as he can help it. The altruistic streak is both laughable and slightly charming. 

"Not exactly in the fucking mood for jokes like that, okay? You could at least pretend you're upset over everyone at your company fucking dying."

"It would simply not accomplish anything."

Gai watches Fuwa twitch but then sigh, gets up from where he was sitting opposite in the van. He goes to stand by the doors, leaning into the dark space that Gai occupies, the spotlights of the courtyard behind him cast his face in shadow and Gai for a moment feels tense. 

"You're right, it wouldn't."

\---

They finally decide what to do with him.

Yaiba had, in her ever tactful way, explained that due to the nature of his involvement with the humagear take over, many other humans in the commune would, again tactfully, try and fucking smash his brains out on whatever surface they could find. Therefore, she continued, that they would have to keep him separate from the commune, under watch, and that to earn his keep he would be working on restoring Satellite Zea. Even though he did manage to bring the Thouser Driver with him, for the time being - unless truly needed - he would not be allowed to fight either. 

Gai has never heard so much waffle to simple explain that he's a prisoner and on thin ice.

It's amusing up until the point he's brought down into the furthest area of the underground commune and he sees the area he's going to be kept. It's behind a small, metal door but it opens up into a somewhat large open space, empty and devoid of anything beyond some boxes and supplies. There's levels to the room too, a top platform that they walk into from the entrance, then down some stairs to the middle pit. A single mattress lays thrown down on the floor, there's a drain in the corner. A bucket. A hose. The most advanced looking thing in the room is a desk, chair and a computer. 

The message is clear and he can't even keep the fake smile of nonchalance on his face. To pretend to be not bothered, to let them know whatever they do to him would not get under his skin - such a plan is almost completely torn down the moment he stands in his prison cell.

He places his briefcase on the desk and gives a smile dripping with hate at Fuwa and Yaiba.

"Not quite what I'm used to." 

Later, when the two are gone and the door has been sealed shut, he stares at the pile of clothes and towel Fuwa left awkwardly on the desk before leaving. He looks at the hose connected to a water main and grits his teeth. 

He falls asleep without changing.

He'll be ZAIA enterprise's CEO as long as he can stomach it. 

\--- 

He falls into a routine eventually. 

Wakes up, finds that someone had came while he was asleep and left some food on the desk. He eats as he logs into the computer which he notices has been basically scooped out of contents other than what the others deem he would need. If he was stupid he would probably ignore the food, ignore the requests being asked of him, but he knows in the long run it's beneficial to no one. He needs to have strength and he needs focus - to let himself become a prisoner in mind was not on the cards. He's not even sure that's what they want either - clearly they need his help from the looks of things, going through the data as he tries to as elegantly as possible scoff down the ration protein bar.

Fuwa visits usually around late afternoon, but Gai has no real sense of time other than his own watch and the digital watch on the computer. There's no windows here, therefore it will be up to him to keep track of days, hours. He knows if they truly wanted to torture him, clocks would be the first thing to go. 

Usually he says nothing, leaves some more food or vaguely tries to look over his shoulder at what he's typing then leaves.

Today is different. 

"You really stink," is the first words out of his mouth, followed by an exaggerated expression of disgust. 

"Thank you for your insightful commentary," Gai looks up from above the computer screen and raises an eyebrow. It's not like he doesn't know, but there's something stopping him from wanting to take off his white clothes, from accepting the drab mix of sweatpants and hoodie in the pile still on the desk. It's irrational, he knows it, but. 

"Look, I'm gonna have to force you to shower and change and I don't want to have to do that."

"Oh? As my jailor, I figured you had all rights to do so."

"I'm not your fucking jailer, we just have to keep you separated--"

"Tell me, what do you think about all this? Do you wish to see me dead too? Or at least, seeing me at this low, how's the schadenfreude? You can be honest, I don't mind." 

Fuwa makes an angry noise of dismissal then, crosses his arms. He knows he's struck a chord then but there's also guilt in that posture that Gai finds intriguing. 

"Yeah, okay, I admit, it's good to see you taken down a few fucking pegs but I'm still in charge of looking after you and you're still a human, okay? So you need to fucking shower and change. If it's about the clothes, I'll, fuck, someone can wash them okay? If that's what your weird ass is concerned about." 

Gai raises an eyebrow then, leans back into the chair. It's nothing like his old office chair, as plush and soft as it was - now it's nothing more than something hard and metal. He crosses his arms too, raises a hand to tap a finger at his lips and makes a show of consideration if only to see the way Fuwa slowly gets more uncomfortable playing the role of authority between them.

"Fine. If you could also find someone to deal with the rips also, it would be much appreciated," he gets up then, elegantly as he would as if he was in his old office still, and starts to take off his blazer swiftly. His jumper follows and the room feels just a few degrees colder now, sets his hair on his arms tingling. 

"Don't push your luck-- hey, hey, wait, at least let me, leave--"

"I need you to take my clothes, do I not?" He takes off his trousers next after taking off his shoes, followed by underwear and socks. The cold is more prominent and he feels a slight shiver through his body, feels himself actively trying to stop his body from shaking just a little. He doesn't know if that particular issue is actually from the cold or the fact he's finally stripped himself of... something. 

He keeps his ZAIA ring on. 

As he bundles the clothes and shoves them into Fuwas arms, he tries to focus on the way the other won't look at him, is looking at the wall instead. There's slight colour in his cheeks, a tightness to his mouth and eventually he clears his throat, excuses himself. 

As the sound of the door locking rings through the room, Gai walks over to the hose. 

The cold water is nothing compared to when he puts on the new clothes that aren't him and lays back onto the mattress, staring at the ceiling. He plays with his ring idly and lets his wet hair soak into the fabric of the hood. As his hair dries, the strands of his fringe naturally hang down and as he tries to move them out of the way, they just won't stay put. 

He's glad there isn't a mirror in the room but he briefly catches sight of his reflection in his watch and he feels the urge to yank it off and throw it.

\---

The routine continues after that, but Fuwa is more talkative. 

Just a little comment here and there, a little question about what he's working on, how soon he thinks Zea will take to get online. He doesn't return back with his clothes just yet but then Fuwa was under no obligation to keep his promise, could've just thrown them in the trash and hope Gai forgets about it. 

It's a little confusing actually - he knows Fuwa doesn't like him, has probably other people he could be talking to, but he's hovering and becoming an existence in his life all the sudden. It's almost unsettling until he realizes that perhaps Fuwa is doing it for his benefit rather than his own - isolation is often a tactic used for prisoners and Fuwa is clearly trying to make it seem like he's not one. Whether out of a misguided belief in that Gai isn't actually one or just something to ease his own consciousness about it all. 

Probably the later. Isamu can be quick with emotion but he's not stupid.

"I would like to actually work on the satellite directly," Gai eventually says when Fuwa is doing his round and there's a snort of dismissal that causes Gai to raise an eyebrow.

"Don't trust you that much yet. You know anything you've been working on by yourself has been checked, yeah? You can work on it directly when we need you to."

"Realistically, you already know I'm not going to do anything that would put me in danger also, so this distrust feels unfounded. Or perhaps, it is founded on some... emotional reasoning."

"Yeah, probably, still ain't changing my answer. You know, Yaiba told me you got a bad hobby in trying to manipulate people, you know it's not gonna work on me, right?"

"Oh, Yaiba has been talking about me? I'm flattered - I'm surprised she hasn't come in here herself."

"I've kind of banned her."

Gai feels his eyebrows go up and it's real surprise he looks at with Fuwa. Confusion too and Fuwa looks a little smug in getting his attention away from the computer. 

"She asked me to leave her alone with you for a bit but I'm pretty sure she just wants to smack you around a bit. So I said no," there's a small little smirk on Fuwa's face, like he's laughing to himself a little, "though, I think I would've liked to see it, and she could definitely use the chance to unwind some stress..."

"I see you two have become close - perhaps there are regular, normal methods of de-stressing that can be done between you," Gai tries to lace the words with as much disgust as possible then. There's a smile on his face, but he knows it's the one that makes people bring up wanting to beat him up in the first place and he can see Fuwa twitch, the amusement gone from his face. 

"We're not like that, freak."

"And how are you de-stressing? Masturbating in the few minutes you have to yourself at night? Or is killing humagears the only thing that gets you feeling anything anymore?"

"Listen here--"

"You could beat me up if you wanted, if you wanted to see her do it so much. Let out all that rage, beat me bloody, no one is here to stop you, and neither would anyone actually stop you, correct? I'm growing a little bored of this routine," Gai gives Fuwa all his attention then, takes his hands away from the keyboard to rest his head on the back of his folded hands. He feels nostalgic then, like he's truly back in his office and he can almost pretend the darkened, dirty floors and walls of grey are the crisp modern designs of ZAIA. He licks at his lips and he can still feel a scar there still healing and he wonders how much he would need to agitate it to taste blood. 

He doesn't know why it's so amusing to bait Fuwa with the catharsis he so wants but then he knows he's never been good with boredom.

And, just maybe, something niggles at his brain at night that at some point he's going to be forgotten in the world, just like that.

He needs someone to pay attention to him, to make sure that doesn't happen. 

"Hey, if you keep talking about all this bullshit like you can't stop me from doing stuff to you, I'm gonna start thinking you want me to do stuff to you, yeah? You feeling guilty for all your employees dying, something like that? You want this to be more like a punishment."

Fuwa starts walking towards the desk and Gai feels a heat in his stomach. He notices that Fuwa has taken off most of his weapons on his person before entering, a safety precaution but Gai can tell there's probably a few knives still left hidden somewhere. He wonders if he could grab one but then what good would it do him? It's a silly fantasy of escape and he resents that he's even being forced to think like that. 

"Hey, are you listening to me?"

He's not, but Gai feels a yank on the front of his hoodie before he can reply, feels himself pulled across the table until he's a few inches away from Fuwa's face. He can see a bruise forming just under his eye and there's a cut by his cheek and he wonders if Fuwa had been out today, wonders how many humagears he killed and how many people he's rescued. 

"You're assuming a lot about what I want," eventually he replies, reaches a hand down to wrap around Fuwa's but doesn't attempt to pull away. 

"I ain't assuming, I know I'm right - but you know what? Tough shit." Fuwa shoves him back into the chair, pulls away. The sound of the chair pushed back by the sudden weight against the floor is loud in the room, metal on concrete and it makes Gai wince. 

"I'm not gonna entertain you. I don't have the time."

"Then send me someone who will."

Fuwa scrunches his face at that, huffs out a breath like the angry dog that he is before shaking his head. He leaves without saying another word and Gai notices that his heartbeat has increased, that there's a hotness in his cheeks. He bites his lip and leans back into the chair, stares up at the ceiling again. 

He wonders when he'd become this desperate. 

He feels the wound on his lip open up and he tastes blood.

\---

What breaks the routine is the sound of shouting and loud noises from outside. It wakes Gai up almost instantly, so used to the deathly silence of the room, the only real noise the hum of the computer if he left it on to work through certain data throughout the night. 

Something is going on - Gai makes his way to the door and tries to listen in and from the sounds of it they're under attack. Not surprising in actuality, Gai knew it was going to happen eventually, no haven is truly safe after all, but suddenly there's 1000 thoughts all at once.

How secure is this door? How well hidden? If he wanted to think about it in another way, how easy could he make his way out? Where would they keep his driver? He may resent the former AIMs agents for the treatment, but he knows in the long run to protect this commune would be ideal and, well. He's amazed they're managing to survive any attacks with their drivers and keys on such a basic level - to not have him fight alongside them, it would be foolish. 

He feels antsy then, starts to pace in front of the door and yanks at it experimentally. It's locked tight, a heavy metal door with no locks on his side, implying the mechanisms are only from the outside. He looks around the room, there's no windows but he wonders if there is another way to escape, another way to exit. The sounds in the corridors outside get louder and more varied, orders being made, plans and strategy - Gai has no real idea of the layout of the building he realizes and he feels his foot tapping at the floor, arms crossing. 

Does he really care about this commune? Well, human beings kept alive is important to him, yes, but they could always rebuild from survivors, humans will always find a way. But Gai knows that's not the reason he suddenly feels sick being trapped and useless - no, he feels his hands clench and unclench, feels a void opening up inside of him, gaping and unpleasant. He wants to fight. He wants to feel the sensation of the Thouser suit, to feel in power again but he's stuck fantasizing Fuwa opening the door and throwing the belt at him. He can almost taste how satisfying it would feel to slot the progrise key into place after so long.

To think about destroying humagears without a care, Gai realizes how much he needs it and he stands in front of the door again, reaches out to touch the dust covered metal. He wants to bang, shout, but all he can do is clench his teeth and glare in frustration. Would it feel worse to not try getting their attention and feel useless or to run himself exhausted banging away for everyone to ignore him? 

He goes back to pacing. He stares at his watch and waits. No one comes for him, neither human or humagear.

\---

It was oddly quiet after the fight and no one came to feed him that evening but it was understandable. It's not until the next day, late in the evening or what his watch tells him is the evening, does Fuwa make an appearance. 

He's a little worse for wear is the first thing Gai notices. Well, perhaps an understatement - his face is littered with cuts, bruises, his arm in a makeshift sling and there's a unique tiredness that tells Gai he's probably not slept. There's a slight gait in his walk too, probably another injury, and he looks fatigued even just going down the stairs towards him. 

"Why didn't you let me out yesterday?" Gai figures the direct approach is best with Fuwa at this point and Gai watches him sigh as he places the ration down next to his hand. Usually he just stands around when they talk but this time he moves to the mattress on the floor, gingerly sits down on it but Gai can tell he just wants to lay back and nap for several or more hours. 

"We did vote, you know. About having you fight with us - but some people really fucking hate you, yeah? So. You can imagine the result of the vote."

"This is quite ridiculous. How many of your men died yesterday? How many are injured? You can't afford to not let me fight--"

"I know, okay? I know, christ, I voted to have you fight, I don't like you either but. Could've really used another Rider on the scene, that's for sure. Thankfully, it wasn't that huge of an attack, but probably just a test to collect data, they're just playing with us like a fucking cat with a mouse."

"Don't bother with voting then. You're essentially the leader, you can surely make some decisions."

"I'm not the leader, that's not how we're running things--"

"If you don't use the tools you have at hand, you're just going to allow more people to die, is that what you want? I can sit here and rot as long as you all continue to act against your best interests."  
He looks at Gai and Gai can tell he's angry. There's that glare again, made even more feral looking just from the way the dark bags hang around his eyes, the way purple mottles his skin. There's a flare to his nostrils, a inhale of breath, but as quickly as Fuwa seems to get angry, he's exhaling and letting himself fall back against the mattress finally. Gai had been watching closely during the back and forth and had noticed the strain clearly on his face from even just the act of keeping upright. 

"You're too fucking tiring to deal with right now. Just shut up and eat and be glad you aren't dead."

Gai leans back in his chair and stares down at Fuwa as the other falls asleep almost instantly. Eventually, Gai starts to pick at the ration but every now and then he can't seem to stop himself from peering down at the mattress, take a few moments to watch the way Fuwa's brow furrows in his restless, probably painful sleep. 

Gai considers getting up and putting the blanket over him, putting the pillow under his head, but he drowns out the thought by drinking down a fowl tasting jelly pouch instead.

When did he start to care if Fuwa was comfortable or not? He doesn't care.

\---

There's another attack a few days later and Gai doesn't bother even getting up from the mattress. Instead he stares up at the ceiling and considers taking a shower. 

Then, he hears the familiar sounds of the lock being undone, then the groan of the door opening makes him sit up and stare upwards. He takes in Fuwa dressed in armour, sling now taken off with ammo and the Forceriser belt strapped around his waist. He takes in the briefcase in his hand and Gai immediately takes note of the ZAIA logo clearly on it. 

"I see we're finally making an executive decision."

"Shut up and get up."

It's a flurry after that. He sees the way the other resistance members look at him in both intrigue and disgust, but most of them seem to not want to even bother voicing opinions or arguments against Fuwa's decision. Gai reasons that the battle earlier that week was harsher than Fuwa let on, that the morale is just too low to bother with anything but focusing on the fight ahead. He sees Yaiba give him a look from across the room, but beyond taking note of him there, she returns to cleaning out the sniper rifle instead. 

He almost misses when Fuwa throws his now washed and repaired clothes at him. Suddenly his arms being filled with a bundle of white is startling after weeks of only seeing drab greys, smokey blacks, the navy blues of Fuwa's uniform in his peripheral vision. They're not as clean as they once were, but they don't smell and the holes in the jumper are well sewn up. There's still holes in his trousers however, and he notices the lack of his blazer among the pile. 

"The blazer--"

"Don't need it. I'm gonna fit you with some body protection and some holsters instead."

"I don't exactly need that if I have the Thouser Driver--"

"Just. Precaution, okay?"

With that, Gai just gives a small shrug with his shoulders. Fuwa can do what he wants he supposes, Gai is just glad to finally be outside of that room. He changes in the corner, no one really paying attention to him, but he looks around the room as he does taking note of the others now in better light. There are more faces than he saw in the van, interesting characters to say the least the lot of them. Equipped for a fight however, determination on their faces that Gai can't help but admire - the near extinction of the human race does tend to bring out the more nobler of emotions in a human he muses. Of course anger, fear, but the drive to protect and fight, it's almost electric in the room. 

As he finishes putting on his turtleneck, Fuwa comes back over with another pile of items, a mixture of black straps and pads. He says nothing as he starts to sling them onto Gai, shoving his arm to the side when needed, doing up buckles and straps with an experts touch. He tightens the straps, then tightens them up a little bit more, adjusts the body armour on his chest. He's oddly close Gai notes, but he's not looking at his face, merely just looking at the task at hand. 

It's... uncomfortable. Not the armour being strapped to him though he's never been a fan of such things in life, but the closeness he's allowing Fuwa to have. He feels Fuwa's hands smooth down his sides, checking for any looseness in the straps and he feels almost sick at how gentle the touch is, how careful it is. He has to look away, look to the side, look at the man in the corner preparing his rounds in his gun, anywhere but Fuwa but then there's a tap at his thigh and he almost jumps. 

"Need you to spread your legs a bit for these," mutters Fuwa, and Gai complies. The plan to look at anywhere but Fuwa fails as he watches the other start to crouch down and grab at his leg, start to wrap a holster around his thigh and tighten the buckles and straps where needed. He's reminded of when Fuwa had grabbed him, how his stomach had fluttered in excitement at the way Fuwa had taken the bait, had paid attention to him and only him but this feels both different and the same. The base feeling is there, but there's more complexity to it now, the touches are different, almost loving in the way he's preparing him for battle. 

He can't look away from it, and then Fuwa looks up at him. 

There's a look of surprise on his face, like he didn't expect Gai to be watching him and Gai realizes it's too late to pretend that he wasn't.

Fuwa politely coughs and finishes up affixing the holster on his thigh at double speed and quickly gets up. He looks more awkward now, is looking away, there's a redness to his ears and then there's another cough. 

"You tolerable with a gun?"

"I've had training."

"Good. Great."

He picks up the briefcase he put on the table behind him containing the Thouser Driver and shoves it into Gai's chest. 

"Pick whatever guns you want then."

He's gone within moments to the other side of the room, loudly making a nuisance of himself demanding everyone be prepared in 5 minutes, and Gai looks up at sees Yaiba looking over at him, raises an eyebrow in curiousity.

Gai ignores her. 

\---

Gai wakes up on a bed that isn't the mattress he's become accustomed to and he feels his body ache in several places. 

He can't exactly move, he wiggles vaguely to the side to try and turn off his back, but a flash of intense pain hits. His side is in a unique agony that tells him that it's perhaps a serious injury for once. He feels himself go hot, his skin feels clammy and he's thankfully out of the constricting chest armour but he feels the tight pressure of bandages around his torso instead. He tries to look down at himself and he can see he's shirtless, can see a stain of red on the white strips and he groans as he rests his head back down. 

This is his own fault, he knows that. 

He remembers the battle going well until a certain point. 

He remembers Fuwa being targeted by the humagear known as Horobi and at the time Gai paid no real attention to it, thought he had it under control. He was dealing with the onslaught of humagears while Yua personally took on Jin and though their equipment was still basic in his eyes, they clearly had many chances to perfect using their progrise keys, master their forms. Before even transforming too, Gai had watched Yua skillfully shoot down the first wave from her position as sniper, watched as Fuwa charged head first with the other resistance members, knife and gun at the ready. They were true fighters in that moment - the pathetic being that Fuwa had become the other day was no longer there, if Fuwa was still injured Gai could no longer tell. 

It's understandable however. To finally be on the battlefield, that's where Fuwa probably feels the most alive - Yua too, though her ability is seen more in keeping a steady, calm finger on the trigger, to take aim so impressively precise. Gai isn't new to a fight, with Thouser he's more than capable, but he felt the difference between himself and the others with the weight of a gun in his hand. He was quick to transform to fight instead. 

It had felt good though. To finally transform, to slot the progrise key into place. The driver sounded off and though it almost hurt to hear the name of a company that no longer existed as his own, it was motivational too. These humagears took ZAIA from him and was he just to lay down and allow that to happen? He felt the Thouser suit enclose around him and that first slash into a humagear felt so satisfying he's left giddy, he couldn't stop the laugh that bubbled out from him as more humagears attacked him. 

He thought about thanking Fuwa after the fight. The crunch of metal and wire beneath his hands, feet, beneath his blade, it had sent shivers through him, his body more alive than it had been in weeks.

But. 

Horobi had knocked Fuwa out of transformation eventually. 

It was in one of the warehouses, Fuwa skidding along the dirt floor as the Vulcan suit disappeared from his form. Gai wonders if he hadn't looked at the right time, would Fuwa be dead right now? His body had moved by itself, positioning himself between the humagear and Fuwa. In hindsight, he was running on adrenaline at that point, in a flow of battle that he'd never experienced before and at the time it had just made sense - to protect one of the Riders among them, it was important and that was all that mattered. 

The thing about fighting humagears however is they don't tire like a human would and at that point Gai was already feeling the strain of the long battle. Using Thouser does ease up the usage of energy resources through compensating via the system but even then, the small meals, the barely sleeping and little moving around, he wasn't exactly at peak strength to start off with. Still, clashing with Horobi with a loud clang of metal on metal, pulling him away from Fuwa, it's all he focused on. At some point he saw Valkyrie crash through the wall, Jin hot on her tail, and as the two humagears grouped up, he silently made a pact with Yua with a single nod towards her. 

He had felt betrayed the day she left ZAIA after he formed the agreement with Will, but he hadn't stopped her. He didn't stop her when she took Forcerisers from the weapons division, didn't stop her as she went back to AIMs to be at the forefront of a defense against humagears. He imagined that after a while she would come back, simply understanding that without him they lacked the power they would need - without him, they would have less time to prepare as humans as he was the only one among them being granted privileges to exist among the humagears. But, she never did. He had seen on the news talks of 'terrorist action' and seeing her face on TV as a wanted criminal, he supposed that was her answer.

To fight alongside her, it was electrifying but he'll never tell her that. 

He could tell she was also nearing her limit though, but every movement was still confident and smooth. The speed of the cheetah key matches well against Jin's own Rider form, but Gai had to focus on his own battle with Horobi - the humagear had a penchant for swords and it was clear in his use of his weapon, choosing to engage more in swordplay than long distance up against him. It had been frustrating as the adrenaline in his body had started to wane, the powerful strikes of Horobi got harder and harder to defend and counter against. 

He hadn't expected the side attack from Jin.

It had opened him up for a slash from Horobi from the front and he remembers the sensation of falling back onto the muddy, hard floor, the Thouser Driver clattering to the side of him and cancelling the transformation. He remembers the bright, intense pain at his side, remembers reaching down and feeling wet, hot liquid and then he's coughing, he can taste blood, felt it running over his lips, down his chin. His ears felt like there was cotton in them, he vaguely heard two people shouting his name as he stared up at the figure of Horobi looking down at him. 

It had made Gai angry. Why was it just looking at him like that? Was the humagear taking pity on him? Did he truly look that pathetic? He was pathetic - he'd let the humagears walk over him for months and for what? To be locked away in a basement? To shiver in the dark under the cold water of a hose? To stare at himself becoming more of an unkempt mess each day? He had growled in anger, yanked the gun out of the thigh holster and shot the entire clip at the humagear. The recoil shocked his body in another brilliant surge of pain but he didn't stop until all that was left was the sound of clicking from the empty chamber, until his ears were truly ringing and his body screamed at him to pass out, to lay down and not move another inch.

Horobi just laughed, the bullets had barely done anything. He had raised his weapon for a final blow.

Then, he doesn't remember anything past that point. 

Now he's here, in pain, staring up at an unfamiliar ceiling and he can hear the bustle of people nearby, can hear others groaning in pain too. But it seems to be the same commune as before and he's still alive, so at the very least he deduces that they may have possibly 'won' as far as they can win at the humagears toying with them.

He wonders if Fuwa and Yua made it. 

He goes back to sleep.


End file.
